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Professor Pyg
Lazlo Valentin, or better known by his supervillain name Professor Pyg, is a DC comic book villain, and an enemy of Batman. He is also a member of the Circus of Strange. Despite being a relatively recent villain, Pyg has quickly become an incredibly recognizable villain. Biography Batman (Dick Grayson) first learns about Professor Pyg when he captures his minion Mister Toad. Professor Pyg proclaims the "Year of the Pig", and he and his Circus of Strange appear in Gotham City as part of the plan by Simon Hurt. Professor Pyg starts a campaign to make people "perfect", and his minions capture Robin (Damian Wayne). Professor Pyg attempts to release an addictive identity-destroying drug in the form of a virus, using his Dollotrons — genderless lobotomized humans with special masks fused into their faces. He previously sold the drug to gangs, who used it to control prostitutes. Professor Pyg also plans to convert Robin into another Dollotron. He is foiled by Batman, who obtains Professor Pyg's location from Pyg's captured henchman Phosphorus Rex. Batman arrives at Professor Pyg's disused amusement park hideout (previously used by Joker in The Killing Joke) after Robin escapes from Professor Pyg's clutches. Together, they succeed in subduing Professor Pyg and his Circus of Strange, and they capture most of the Dollotrons. Professor Pyg is arrested and taken to Blackgate Penitentiary. He is later freed by Simon Hurt's enforcers, the 99 Fiends Gang. A major part of the plan by Simon Hurt and the Black Glove, Pyg wreaks havoc across Gotham with his viral infection. Batman and Commissioner Gordon are captured by the 99 Fiends Gang, and a giant army of Dollotrons appears. Batman breaks free, but Professor Pyg plans to convert Gordon at a "party" held in Crime Alley. The plan is foiled by Batman and the Joker (who has captured Robin); Joker is revealed to be Dr. Simon Hurt's adversary. The Black Glove was terminated with the Joker's laughing gas. Professor Pyg and Simon Hurt are nearly captured by Batman, but they subdue him using the drugged Gordon. Robin is freed by the Joker as a part of a plan to stop Dr. Simon Hurt. Robin assaults Professor Pyg's van and liberates Gordon, but he is captured by the 99 Fiends Gang. Professor Pyg leaves Hurt and his 99 Fiends to pursue his own agenda in the city. Simon Hurt impersonates Thomas Wayne, and he nearly defeats Batman and Robin until Bruce Wayne arrives as the original Batman. Wayne remains to fight Simon Hurt, and he sends Robin and Grayson after Professor Pyg. Professor Pyg is at the center of the virus infection zone, surrounded by Dollotrons and numerous addicts. He is using a device that he claims will bring the addicts "salvation"; the device is a mobile Dollotron converter. Grayson and Robin defeat Professor Pyg, luring him out of the crowd by tricking him with his "mother". He is taken to Arkham Asylum. A new villain named Son of Pyg briefly appears as an agent of the Leviathan organization. He is defeated by Batgirl during a plot to turn a group of teen mercenaries-in-training into agents of Leviathan. Otto Netz, also known as Doctor Daedulus, later revealed to Batman that Lazlo Valentin was a former agent of his spy organization Spyral who went insane after being exposed to a mind-eroding chemical agent of his own design. ''The New 52'' In The New 52, Professor Pyg appears as part of a group of Arkham Asylum inmates who attempt to escape from the facility during a riot, but are stopped by Batman and Nightwing. Later, during the war with the Leviathan organization, through investigation, Batman discovers that Professor Pyg's "Mother of Nails" is actually Talia al Ghul. During the Forever Evil storyline, when the Crime Syndicate arrives from another universe to take over the world, Earth is plunged into chaos, and Gotham City is divided by its criminals in Batman's absence. In the middle of the mess, Professor Pyg uses the Gotham Memorial Hospital as his hideout during the division. Pyg, with his Dollotron army, sedated unknowing pedestrians and unnecessarily operated on them. Pyg's reign, however, is short lived because the Scarecrow approaches Professor Pyg at the hospital to see if he will give his supplies and Dollotrons to the Scarecrow's followers. Bane later approaches Professor Pyg and forces him to join his cause ''Convergence'' The pre-Flashpoint Professor Pyg appears in the Convergence limited series where a group of pre-Flashpoint Batman villains, including the Riddler and Professor Pyg, attempt to confront Thomas Wayne, the Batman of the modern-reimagined Earth-2 (who is commonly mistaken for the Flashpoint Batman due to a similar costume). These villains, seeing him as simply an obstacle, attack en masse. This version of Pyg is eventually slain when Thomas Wayne blows himself up as a delaying tactic. Dollotrons The Dollotrons are Professor Pyg's army of robotic mind-controlled people. They wear doll-like dresses and have doll masks permanently attached to their original faces. The masks cannot be removed surgically. The process of creating them is not described in detail, but it is implied it involves brain surgery, genital mutilation, and mind-altering drugs. They number in the hundreds, and can appear suddenly when Pyg is around. A prominent Dollotron is Scarlet, the daughter of one of Pyg's Russian victims. Pyg was prevented from completing her transformation and she remains sane. She later joins Red Hood as his side-kick. Her mask eventually wears off by itself, but there may be lasting damage. Other versions In a possible future depicted in Batman in Bethlehem story, Professor Pyg and some members of the Circus of Strange have become crime bosses in Gotham City. He is found dead by the police without his mask, crucified upside down in a church. A special Dollotron is also seen, an improvement on the older models. Personality Professor Pyg is extremely mentally unstable. He has a habit of speaking cryptic babble that would make no sense to a layperson but when analysed, is full of abstract symbolism, implying that he has a chemical imbalance in the left side of his brain which forces him to see reality as a nebulous mass of chaos. Pyg's mentality is reminiscent to the bizarre and frequently terrifying inmates that Batman encountered in the one-shot story Arkham Asylum: A Serious House On A Serious Earth. He shows an unhealthy obsession with his body, frequently ripping off his shirt whilst dancing and injecting botox into his face (despite wearing a mask). This obsession with the human form is carried over into his modus operandi: by lobotomizing his victims and grafting doll masks onto their faces, he is unifying ordinary people under his own twisted idea of beauty He frequently talks to a wooden scaffold wrapped in barbed wire with a mask and wig on it, referring to it as Mommy. He also displays masochistic tendencies, begging to be hit by Batman, allowing himself to be lynched by his dollotrons and piercing himself with rusty nails and barbed wire. Pyg could easily be considered Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne's answer to Bruce Wayne's Joker, due to his unhealthy and incredibly dangerous methods, as well as his obsession with defeating them both. Television History ''Batman: The Brave and the Bold'' Pyg makes a cameo appearance in "The Knights of Tomorrow!". Beware the Batman He appears in the episode "Hunted" where he and Mister Toad are working together in order to kidnap Simon Stagg and Michael Holt (although he acts as the leader). They do this because they were involved in an agreement to sell a part of the Gotham environment to people who destroyed the land and the habitat of animals. They also tried to kidnap Bruce Wayne but captured Alfred instead. In order to get revenge they fill the headquarters with traps and make the men walk through the base. Batman breaks in and fights them however Mr. Toad throws some bombs at him which causes the whole base to blow up. Although Batman and the men escape they are not seen leaving however Batman thinks that they survived and will someday return. He and Mister Toad return in the episode "Instinct" where they kidnap a famous model who uses real dead bird feathers in her clothes. They strap her to a trap that ends with her falling off a clock tower however Batman saves her. They later capture a fashion designer who uses animal skins for his designs and strap him to another trap. Batman and Katana are able to save him in time though. Later a fashion company that uses animals has a party on a yatch. They plant a BBQ truck full of explosives in it. Although they are able to deduce that they are still on the ship, Batman finds them below deck with a device that is strapped to the wires and gets more hotter every time a passenger enters. He fights them but they get the upper hand. Katana then arrives and helps Batman. Pyg then tries to activate the device but Batman stops it and a fire erupts and Pyg and Toad are knocked out. Batman is then able to put out the fire. In the episode "Reckoning" he and Mister Toad are among the many criminals that are released by Ra's al Ghul from prison and went after Batman so that Ra's would give them a piece of the city. However Batman tricks all the criminals and they all turn on each other. Batman then leaves them fighting. In "Doppelganger" he and Mister Toad steal Dr. Kirk Langstrom's research and transform him into Man-Bat. They plan to use his work to mutate the people that they kidnapped and make them into their own personal army of mutants. After Batman and Katana free Man-Bat from their control they he to Pyg and Toad's compound and confront them. Batman manages to free their hostages and fights Pyg in the building while Katana and Man-Bat fight Toad outside. Batman is able to defeat Pyg in hand to hand combat however when Mister Toad regains control over Man-Bat he fights Batman. Pyg tries to mutate Katana however Batman stops him and Toad in time and frees Man-Bat. Pyg and Toad are soon arrested after that. In this show he is voiced by Brian George. ''Gotham'' :See page: Professor Pyg (Gotham) Professor Pyg made his live-action debut in the fourth season of the FOX television series Gotham. He is a serial killer who murders cops and dresses them up in severed pig heads as part of his MO. He is played by Michael Cerveris. Video Game History Batman: Arkham Knight Professor Pyg makes his video game debut in Batman: Arkham Knight, voiced by Dwight Schultz.is viewed as a serial killer who kidnaps people across the country under his front "The Circus of Strange", where he brings them back to Gotham and turns them to what he calls "Dollotrons". Any failed attempt to turn victims to Dollotrons are left behind mutilated as what Pyg calls his failed "flawed" experiments (in which rejected victims have distinctive features: shark bite, six fingers on one hand,). In his audio files, Pyg can be heard introducing the acts of his circus and later is heard recording diary-like audio logs for his son Janosz in which he talks about his work with the Dollotrons and how he had to kill Janosz's biological mother after she became imperfect. He is the villain behind the "Perfect Crime" side quest where Batman tracks him down by investigating the corpses left behind. Batman later tracks him down at the Pretty Doll Parlor at Ryker Heights. After a fight against Professor Pyg and his group of Dollotrons, Batman takes him down while breaking his pig mask and rescues the captive civilians. Batman then brings Professor Pyg to the Gotham City Police Department to be locked up with the other villains. ''Injustice 2'' Professor Pyg makes a cameo appearance in Red Hood's ending being stopped by him from attacking Scarlet with a meat cleaver. 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